KMT and PFP remain out of sync

Despite pledging to form a political alliance, differences in understanding between the KMT and the PFP continued to surface yesterday as officials from both parties gave different answers to questions about the same event.

KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) told the press that the alliance's candidates for next year's presidential election would be formally announced on Friday. But PFP Secretary-General Tsai Chung-hsiung (蔡鐘雄) said that it is possible that the lineup for joint ticket won't be announced until next week.

"Since there are still some details that both parties have yet to reach consensus on, we will not rule out the possibility of holding the announcement of the ticket until next Wednesday," Tsai said when asked by reporters.

It is widely assumed that Lien will be the presidential candidate on the joint ticket, with PFP Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) as his running mate.

When asked when the alliance would publicize its list of personnel to head the eight committees that will coordinate the joint election campaign, Lien simply said that, "The list will first need to be affirmed by the party's Central Standing Committee before it is publicized."

KMT spokesman Alex Tsai (蔡正元) later elaborated on Lien's remarks, saying that the list would be announced at a press conference today, to be held after the KMT's weekly Central Standing Committee meeting.

That was a different answer from the one given by PFP spokesman Hwang Yih-jiau (黃義交) on Monday. Hwang told the press that both Soong and Lien would meet yesterday to jointly announce the list.

The difference in understanding apparently continued till Monday night, when Tsai remained reserved about the Lien-Soong meeting and told reporters that things were still undecided.

Events then took a dramatic turn late Monday night, when Lien and Soong staged an impromptu meeting.

According to Tsai, the meeting was initiated by Lien, who asked Soong to "have a meal" at his residence.

The parties' attempt to keep the meeting low-profile were evidenced by the actions of KMT Secre-tary-General Lin Fong-cheng (林豐正), who played hide and seek with reporters Monday night in an attempt to ditch the press before joining Lien at his residence.

Tsai later told reporters that others present at the "private meeting" included Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), PFP Vice Chairman Chang Chao-hsiung (張昭雄), PFP Secretary-General Tsai Chung-hsiung (蔡鐘雄) and former PFP secretary-general Chung Jung-chi (鐘榮吉).

KMT Vice Chairman Wang Jin-ping (王金平) was invited but was unable to make the meeting, Tsai said.

When confronted by reporters yesterday, Lien confirmed that he had indeed met with Soong but remained tight-lipped about the content of the meeting.